Only one difference

In my youth, I liked the Christmas; rather, I liked Christmas presents.

By the time I was old enough to understand the stories I was being told in Lutheran Sunday school, I was already a skeptic.  By 10, I was a true non-believer.  I felt guilty as hell about my total lack of faith and I secretly tried to let the "spirit of the Lord" wash over me, but the whole god-who-we-can't-know-anything-about just sounded like another stupid story to tell children.  God fit right into the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny milieu.

I still feel that way about God.  Any God.

And I really dislike Christmas.  I used to say I disliked the commercialization of a religious holiday.  But that isn't quite the truth.  I do have a general dislike for gift-exchange and -giving days.

But mostly I dislike Christmas because I am left fighting off the feeling that people are too damn stupid to live. I have enough trouble with my thoughts about people to have those thoughts revved up at this time of year.

All I want to do is hide away, mostly alone, until the sheep have settled down again.

Hey, Christians

Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret...."

There are many ways to interpret the Bible. Though, forcing others to bend to your beliefs is a real stretch!

And no matter how commercial Christmas gets, no matter how many pagan symbols are coopted, no matter how many times the Politically Correct name the other religious celebrations that happen during the "holidays", this is a Christian holiday being shoved down my throat.

There are billboards around San Diego every year that read "Jesus is the only reason for the season."  The word "only" is written in as if added by an copy editor.  They are sponsored each year by a half dozen local businesses. 

I really hate the last six weeks of the year.

vision problems

Last evening, I discovered that I couldn't find the proper focal distance while reading my book.  This morning I discovered there isn't a focal distance for anything.  All my world is a blur.   I have my monitor screen magnified 4x so I can read what I'm typing.

This has happened before, but it has been awhile.  I think it's a form of optical migraine.

Damn.

New Car?

We are off to the VW dealership to retrieve the Passat from the service department and (probably) buy the new Eos.

Oops

The new Eos is in front of the house. The Eos owner is not happy. Two of the three MUSTs are not right and the deal was signed before we found out. Not happy at all. We will see on Tuesday what can be done, if anything.

Sigh.

We had to kill some time, so we took an Avalanche off the lot. I really like that truck. I discovered that backing it at night is an issue, but mine will have a backup camara. That is a good thing!

There's a party tonight. I'm not feeling very party-like. I rarely do, though. We will be going to that in a couple of hours. Tomorrow is a gathering day at our house. We will have 25 or so people here for many hours. Then on Sunday, we go to David's and Christi's house for several hours. And we will be going to Greg's house for a bit sometime during the day on Sunday.

Monday will get here and I'll be completely exhausted.